Saturday, July 20, 2002
"Crossfire" Debate Transcript
To read what I had to say tonight, scroll down past Victor Kamber and Connie Chung segments. My opponent was Jorge Ramos, a news anchor at Univision. He did the show from Miami. So I wanted to see what he thought of the unjust firing of Zita Wilensky:
BOULET: " . . . does the name Zita Wilensky ring a bell? She's a lady 16 years in government service in Miami, fired for not learning Spanish in 60 days. They said you have to learn Spanish. I asked her..."
RAMOS: " I mean that is just an exception. That is just an exception. Let me give you another source and maybe..."
BOULET: "She should have been fired?"
Mr. Ramos found other things to talk about, but I wanted to get an answer to this question. So a bit later on:
BOULET: "The Miami example -- I keep wanting to come back to this -- they speak 64 languages in Miami-Dade County. An American woman was fired after 16 years for not learning Spanish.
"I called her up -- OK, they speak a lot of Spanish in Miami. I called her up and said, what happens when people speak one of the other 63 languages call in? Oh, they're transferred.
"So if you only speak Spanish in the Miami government, you're doing a fine job. If you only speak English, out the door with you."
At this point, time was called.
|posted by Jim on 1:09 AM|
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